Twitter Feed

Artist – Karim Al Husseini

“Dew Not” is a mixed media animation produced as Karim Al Husseini’s 5th collective work towards the Palestinian cause. A reflection of the Palestinian migration which has been lived through out history over the past 60 years, Al Husseini’s family are one of the fundamental pillars of Jerusalem and Palestine for over 650 years as it traces back to the lineage of the Prophet Muhammad’s (PBUH) family from its roots, and branched down all the way to one of the artist’s grandfather’s who was the mufti of Jerusalem during the 1940s and later, and his father’s cousin who was considered a possible future leader of the Palestinian people.

Due to the wealth and critical importance of Al Husseini’s name in the lands of Palestine, Karim Al Husseini’s work brings the audience closer to his personal history and personal reality about a land his family has been forced to leave whilst others stubborn to remain, telling the stories of the dispersion created out of a forced geo-political conflict that robs his land from its own fruit. Al Husseini family can now be found all over the world and have been continuously dispersed across the globe still seeking refuge until this day.

Karim Al Husseini’s “Dew Not” (2012) operates on animation stills of a character in the form of a water drop found in the scapes of nature. It first appears as a dew formed drop that was created off of the cold surface of a plant. As the dew drops to hit the ground, it finds that it is not accepted to be absorbed into the grounds earthen plains. As it rises towards the sky, it finds that there too it will not be accepted by the evaporating clouds, so it then falls into the sea as a drop of rain. The waves of the sea do not accept the presence of the dew for being made of a different component, so it throws it out where it then becomes attached to a passing ship. Coincidentally the ship belongs to the United Nations, where the dew is once again not accepted and evaporates into the sky yet another time, where it is again rejected and gets pushed over onto a mountain. It is here where this drop of water turns into snow. It freezes, and the snow forces the drop out of
the mountain down into a river. It melts and then fuses once again into the land. As it finally rises up to the sky, the dew breaks into tears, creating hundreds and hundreds of smaller water drops. As it continues to rise up into the sky, it finds that it does not belong here so the dew continues to rise up into space.

Rising into nothingness away from social repudiation, even then it finds itself rejected and as it returns to the earth’s crust, the speed and heat of its movement burns its soluble embodiment, and the water drop evaporates into a steamed dust of smoke does it then rise into the heavens. Approaching the earth’s landscape, does it this time land onto a flower from Nirvanty where it finds its final refuge.